Our Research: Portsdown U3A

Lives of the First World War enabled people of all ages from across the globe to explore, research, record and share information in one place. Organisations ranging from to schools to libraries, and local history groups to museums used Lives of the First World War to both help their research and to create a lasting legacy for their wonderful work.

In this guest blog post, Carole Chapman from Portsdown U3A tells us about the group’s Jutland project.

We are using the Lives of the First World War to help us with our research into the personal details and stories of those men with local connections who died in the battle

Portsdown U3A has a Heritage Lottery funded project: The Impact on the People of Portsmouth of the Battle of Jutland.

The Battle of Jutland (31 May – 1 June 1916) was the largest naval battle of the First World War. It was the only time that the British and German fleets of ‘dreadnought’ battleships actually came to blows. The British lost 14 ships and over 6,000 men, but were ready for action again the next day. The Germans, who had lost 11 ships and over 2,500 men, avoided complete destruction but never again seriously challenged British control of the North Sea. As a naval city many men from Portsmouth took part in the battle, and we are using the Lives site to help us with our research into the personal details and stories of those men with local connections who died in the battle.

Lives of the First World War workshop, University of Portsmouth. 3 February 2016

Charlotte Czyzyk, Project Manager for Lives of the First World War, came down to Portsmouth to lead an excellent introductory workshop for our group and our partners at the University of Portsmouth. We have also just held our first drop-in session for members of the local community to share family history and stories of their relatives who fought in the Battle of Jutland. The results were fascinating and beyond our expectations.

3 Responses to Our Research: Portsdown U3A

I’ve set up a community on Lives of the First World War for Portsmouth men involved in the Battle of Jutland. It’s for men with a link to Portsmouth, other than just the fact that they had Portsmouth service numbers, and includes those she survived as well as those who died.
Please see https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/community/2886 .
I’ve unfortunately not had a chance to do much work on it, so if anyone involved with your project would like to email me details of people you’ve identified on Lives of the First World War and would like added to the community, please just email me at ww1lives@gmail.com .

I have read about your really interesting project and wonder if you would be interested in an article a relative has written about my Great Uncle , Stephen Hysted Mayhew, who was on HMS Shark which was torpedoed on 31st May 1916 at the Battle of Jutland, and sadly he was killed in the action. This article will also be published in the Petersfield Post , where Stephen grew up and from there joined the Navy.
many thanks, Lorraine Grieve

Hi Lorraine, thanks for getting in touch. The best thing to do would be for you to add the article to your great uncle’s Life Story page here: https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/7666746 If you click ‘Add to Life Story’, then ‘Share a Story’ you can type in or copy and paste the text. Thank you.